Trip to the North East

I spent the last few days this week in the North East – enjoying some wonderful, sunny weather and the opportunity to meet some Daglishes.

The main reason for the trip was to be at Gibside, the National Trust property, which has been open for free this weekend as part of the Heritage Open Day scheme, under the theme “Your History Matters”. I was there trying to help others who are interested in starting family history search and want to know where to begin. There was a steady flow of visitors all day – some of whom were already experienced researchers with their “brick walls” that they wanted solved!
The highlight of the day for me was meeting Mr & Mrs Bill Daglish, who came to meet me after their son saw details of the event on the blog – an unexpected pleasure!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Louise and her husband Nigel, and Vera and her husband Allen. Louise has been researching her Daglish line for over 20 years, and has got back as far as 1583 in Whickham. Louise told me about her dismay when she found that one of her family headstones in a local cemetery had been flattened – apparently done to making mowing easier.

This started some thoughts about how gravestones and headstones are in danger of being either flattened, damaged or even removed, and I thought it might be useful to create an archive of photos of Daglish graves and other memorials.

With this in mind I went out to look for some. One in Newcastle Cathedral is for John Daglish (1793-1837), a chemist and druggist. He is recorded as being the son of William Daglish of Gateshead and whose mother was a descendent of Henry Maddison, sixth of the ten sons whose effigies are on the extraordinary Maddison Monument, also in Newcastle Cathedral.

John Daglish is reported to have been "of a philanthropic and benevolent disposition, a promoter of infant and Sunday schools, and a warm hearted friend of the young, the helpless and the suffering. " He was twice married, first to Catherine Wilson (who is buried with him) and later to Mary Wilkinson. One of his sons William Stephen Daglish (1832-1911) became a prominent solicitor in Newcastle, whilst another John Wilkinson Daglish (1828-1906) was a mining engineer and Justice of the Peace.

The only danger to this stone is probably from the hundreds of pairs of feet that must walk over it every day, most without taking time to read the inscription.

If anyone has their own photos of headstones or memorials connected to the Daglish name that they would be willing to let me have copies of I would be very grateful. Also it would be very useful to know the locations of any Daglish graves or memorials - much easier than finding them by chance! Living as I do in the south of England, it was a thrill to be able to go into a churchyard or cemetery and find a Daglish grave.

I have posted some other photos that I took on this trip on a flickr site (a way of sharing photos).

I also visited another National Trust property, Wallington, to try to locate the Daglish clock that my wife and I remembered seeing there some 15 years ago. My wife remembered that it used to be in the upstairs restaurant – but it’s no longer there. I spoke to a lady who worked in the restaurant at that time, who confirmed that the clock was indeed there at the time but she thought it was now held as part of the private collection. The person who would know was not there on the day I visited – but I left details and hope to hear from Wallington soon.

My thanks to Louise and Nigel, and to Vera and Allen, for their kind and generous hospitality.

Operation Epsom: new book by Ian Daglish

Just a quick update on the latest book by Ian Daglish, "Operation Epsom" (see full story below: June 23).

The book has now been published after a short delay which, according to Ian, "is almost all my fault, since the publishers allowed me several stages of proofing before I let it go to print".

This is a book that has been in Ian's mind for some ten years, and follows his earlier books on other Normandy campaigns.

"Operation EPSOM, the first of Montgomery's major set-piece Normandy battles, marked a turning point in the Normandy campaign. Before EPSOM, there remained the chance that a German counter-strike in Normandy might seriously threaten the bridgehead. After EPSOM, the Allies retained the strategic initiative through the liberation of France and Belgium".

The book is a hardback with 272 pages, illustrated with photos, including aerial photography of the battlefield, and period Army maps. It is published by Pen & Sword at £19.99 (but can be found cheaper on some online sites, including Amazon or direct from the publisher).

The Times Digital Archive

The Times newspaper is a valuable resource tool for researchers. The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985 can be accessed online from many libraries in the UK, with the possibility to search news articles, obituaries, editorials, features as well as classified advertisements. Searching for "Daglish" I found announcements of many births, marriages and deaths, together with some more general news items.

One entry under News In Brief caught my eye. This notes the death of Henry Edward Daglish in 1951 - the event appears to have been deemed newsworthy because Henry was apparently 7 feet 7 inches (The Times, March 16 1951). Henry was the son of Christopher John Daglish and Beatrice May Hambidge from Swindon, and his grandfather, John Daglish, had moved to Swindon from South Shields.

In the years 1968 and 1969, James Daglish wrote for The Times, with many articles showing that he was part of the Political Staff. I have so far been unable to identify who this James was - if anybody can help, please let me know. The article below is from August 1968 concerning one of the hot political stories from the time.

British Army World War 1 Pension Records online

Some more documents of interest have recently appeared on line at the Ancestry subscription site - this time British Army Pension Records from 1914 to 1920. These again are sourced from the UK National Archives.

There are 17 Daglish files included in the records now online, and at least two of these have already been useful to living relatives in finding out more about their ancestor's war service.

One I would like to highlight concerns George William Crawford Daglish. George was born in 1872, so was older than most others who joined the army after the outbreak of the war. George's record show that he first enlisted in 1891, when he was 18. He served in South Africa in between 1899 and 1902 and was awarded the South African War Medal.

Research by George's granddaughter, Maralyn, has shown that George was in fact born George Jobson, the son of Jane Jobson of Alnwick, in 1872. He was raised by his aunt Elizabeth Daglish (nee Jobson) and her husband John.

This kind of "informal adoption" by families was not uncommon. It can cause havoc with our DNA study as, of course, it will cause a break in the assumed Daglish line. However this is only from the biological point of view; in all other respects, children brought up in this way will regard themselves as Daglishes and will pass the name down to their descendents.

George married Eveline Florence Lee in London in 1898 and their first daughter was born in the same year. After that George was posted to South Africa - so the next child, a son, did not arrive until 1903. The photo shows George at Aldershot in around 1915 or 1916.

According to The National Archives:

When war broke out in August 1914, the British army numbered just over 730,000 men. Unlike the other major European states, where conscription allowed huge numbers of men to be rapidly brought under arms, Britain relied on a small, professional defence force. But the scale of the conflict between the Allies and the Central Powers demanded massive increases in Britain's military manpower resources. By the end of the war in 1918, more than seven million men and women had seen service in the British army.

Unfortunately, more than half of their service records were destroyed in September 1940, when a German bombing raid struck the War Office repository in Arnside Street, London. However, an estimated 2.8 million service records survived the bombing or were reconstructed from the records of the Ministry of Pensions. This means that there is a roughly 40% chance of finding the service record of a soldier who was discharged at some time between 1914 and 1920.

With thanks to Maralyn Webb who provided the photo of George William Crawford Daglish, for her research on this family and also her help with other Daglish families from Alnwick.

Olly back on Dragon's Den

This week saw Olly Daglish back on the TV show “Dragon’s Den” – this time in a follow-up show entitled "The Dragons’ Den – Where Are They Now?"

The BBC show is based around would-be entrepreneurs pitching their money-spinning ideas to gain business financing to a panel of five "dragons". The Dragons are all established business people with money to make things happen. However, the entrepreneurs need all their powers of persuasion, reasoning and presentation to convince the five Dragons that their business is worth investing in.

Olly first appeared on the show in February seeking investment in his Ollypop surf towel – but then his idea was harshly criticised by dragon Theo Paphitis. “It’s about as useful as knickers on a kipper!” Theo declared.

This week's show looked at what had happened since, and showed Olly in his home environment - down on the beach.

Olly reflected: “Theo’s not from a surfing background so I can understand why he couldn’t see the potential in the towel. But I was determined to come away from the Den with something, and the “kipper’s knickers” quote was it!”

He added: “I just couldn’t resist. It would be a shame to let such a quirky phrase go to waste so we’re using it as our new slogan. Ollypop - the kipper’s knickers!- just like the ‘bee’s knees’ or the ‘cat’s whiskers’!”

The Ollypop towel range has been expanded to include ‘Girlpop’, designed specifically to appeal to the growing band of surf girls, and the ‘Grompop’ for kids - in addition to the 'Original', which is an updated version of the towel Olly took to the Den. Orders are up - and the ‘kipper’s knickers’ phrase is catching on.

Australian convict records

This week it was announced that details of Australian convict records for the period 1788 to 1868 have been released online through subscription site Ancestry.

The BBC web site reported:

The records of tens of thousands of British convicts sent to Australia from the end of the 18th Century have been put online for the first time. Subscribers can browse names, date of conviction, the length of sentence and which penal colony they went to.

It is estimated two million Britons and 22% of Australians will have a convict ancestor listed in the records.

Transportation of convicts to Australia began as British prisons were becoming overcrowded in the late 18th Century and crime in cities increased following the industrial revolution. The journey to Australia by boat took eight months, six of which were spent at sea and two in ports where supplies were picked up.

The majority of the convicts were men and although a small number had been found guilty of serious crimes such as murder and assault, most had committed minor offences. Some of the crimes they were punished for included stealing from a pond or river and setting fire to undergrowth.

After serving out their sentence many convicts remained in Australia and the BBC site comments:

Many Australians are said to consider a convict in their family tree is a badge of honour and 22% are direct descendents of these convicts.

The documents are from the National Archives in the UK, and include two Daglishes.

James Daglish in December 1832 on board the ship "Jupiter" to Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania). He had been convicted on 28 July 1832.

The New South Wales and Tasmania Convict Musters 1806-1849 show that James had been assigned to Public Works but died on 31 October 1836.

William Daglish in May 1865 on board the ship "Racehorse" to Western Australia. He had been convicted on 22 July 1863.

More details of the voyage can be found on the Convicts to Australia site which shows that the Racehorse left Portland, England on May 26, 1865 bound for the Swan River Colony. The voyage took 76 days and the Racehorse arrived in Fremantle on August 10, 1865 with 172 passengers and 278 convicts.

The list of convicts shows that William Daglish, aged 31, had been convicted of house breaking on 22 July 1863 and sentenced to 12 years.

Could this be the same William Daglish who was reported in The Times in May 1858 under the heading "A Notorious Burglar"?

"William Daglish, a powerful, thick set young man, 25 years of age, is in the custody of South Shields police, and has been identified with two desparate burglaries ... there seems no doubt but that, though he is only 25 years of age, he is the leader of the gang of burglars who have caused so much alarm in the north country towns during the past two or three months ... He has suffered four years penal servitude for shoplifting at Sunderland; 18 months imprisonment for a burlary in the parsonage of Holy Trinity Church, South Shields and has been imprisoned for three other offences. It is suspected that his companions are either returned convicts, or ticket-of-leave men"

UK flooding

As anyone living in the UK will know, the country has been suffering with serious flooding in many parts of the country. A couple of weeks ago it was the North of England, in particular Yorkshire - but now it is the areas around the rivers Severn and Thames. The map below shows some of the areas affected.

Many thousands of families have had their homes flooded and many more are without electricity or clean water. Although the peak levels seem to have been reached in the areas worst affected, it will take many days for the waters to recede - and much, much longer for life to return to normal. The forecast is for the UK summer to continue to be unsettled, with more rain to come.

The BBC web site is publishing a number of stories from its readers under the heading Your stories: Fighting the floods; this includes the following from George and Emma Daglish:

GEORGE AND EMMA DAGLISH, KINGSWAY, GLOUCESTER

George Daglish, 34, said he and his wife were relying on bottled water to help feed their six-month-old daughter, Olivia, and were still waiting for a bowser to be delivered to their area.

"We ran out of water at the weekend and went to get some supplies from Morrisons, but it was like a scene from a film," said George.

"People were panicking and just grabbing things off the shelves. I've never seen anything like it.

"We managed to get some water from elsewhere, so I'm not too worried at the moment. Our electricity went off during the night, but it came back on this morning, so if it stays on then we should be OK.

"If things do get too bad then my wife will probably take the children and go an stay with her parents in Blackpool. We have a two-year-old and a six-month old baby, so getting bottles made up for her is obviously the most important thing.

"We don't think the floodwater will reach us, so we are better off than many people. We just have to tough things out for a few more days."

Story and map from the BBC News web site.

The Land of Nursery Rhyme by Alice Daglish

Alice Daglish was the first wife of my father, Eric Fitch Daglish. Born Alice Archer in 1896, she married my father in 1918 toward the end of the First World War. They had three children - two sons (twins) and a daughter. Alice died in January 2000, aged 103.

The Land of Nursery Rhyme was a book that Alice worked on with Ernest Rhys (1859-1946), a friend of the family who was a writer and founding editor of the Everyman’s Library series. This series, published by J.M. Dent in the UK and E.P. Dutton in the US, published classic book titles at an affordable price. The aim of the series was to publish 1,000 titles, in batches of ten titles at a time. The target was eventually reached in 1956, ten years after Rhys died.

The Land of Nursery Rhyme was first published in 1932, containing drawings by Charles Folkard (1879-1963), an illustrator of children's books.

These included some very rich, colour illustrations of particular rhymes - such as the one shown for "Ride A Cock Horse To Banbury Cross". Later editions and re-prints of the book did not contain all of these full colour illustrations.

In a sign of the times that it was written, in the introduction the authors note:

“Here are the favourite old Nursery Rhymes along with some others which are more or less new … The very latest of all is one about a Flying-man.”

Flying-man, Flying-man,

Up in the sky,

Where are you going to,

Flying so high?

Over the mountains,

And over the sea -!

Flying-man, Flying-man,

Can't you take me?

A later book "A Christmas Holiday Book" was published in 1934, this time with illustrations by Mary Shillabeer.

George Melly on Peter Daglish

George Melly, the jazz musician and writer, died on July 5.

Back in 1979, George Melly reviewed an exhibition of lithographs by Peter Daglish - the review was published in the February 1979 edition of the London Magazine. This particular issue was the 25th Anniversary of the London Magazine, and had a painting of Bjorn Borg by Rosemary Taylor on its cover.

The exhibition was at the Graffiti Gallery in London and was made up of a suite of 25 lithographs entitled the Ofay Suite.

In his notes entitles "Ofay Melody" Melly wrote:

"With a rapidity approaching Picasso, and with intentions not dissimilar from that painter's loose variations in a single theme, Peter Daglish has produced twenty-five splendid black and white lithographs to be looked at in any order.

He has worked at them ritualistically. With one exception, he has divided each print into two upright rectangles, two separate images. In the left-hand frame he has drawn a woman. In the right, a man. On completing one image, he covered it over while he drew the other. In this way the first image couldn't directly affect the second. Only the memory of what he'd just invented could influence what he was about to do ...

In the case of every rectangle containing a man there is, either at the top or bottom, a word in a frame. Some refer to poems: "Oranges, for instance (Frank O'Hara is Daglish's favourite poet). Others to art: Vincent for example. (Daglish has also made a series of prints based on Van Gogh's "Painter on the way to work".) Jazz too. "Jellyroll" it says under the image of a thoughtful moustached man who in no way resembles Morton. The words add poetic resonance. They are also formally beautiful. In some cases letters are reversed "as in a mirror".

Melly concludes:

In whatever order these prints are arranged it would be possible to invent "a story". There would also be no point in it except as a test of ingenuity. What they are far more like is a "blues" (isolation or desertion hover). In most blues the verses can be sung in any order and still convey their meaning.

In one print "MEANWYLE" (sic) a sailor in the right-hand frame leans forward to hold the breast of the girl in the left hand frame. Contact is made. The effect is so tender that I would always wish to see this print last".

John Snowden Jackson Daglish - The Battle of Kohima

On Wednesday evening, the BBC screened a special edition of Who Do You Think You Are, featuring the TV and radio presenter Nicky Campbell.

Nicky was adopted, and the film followed his adopted family, and featured a section on the involvement of Nicky’s father in what is known as “the forgotten war” against Japan in India, and in particular at the Battle of Kohima. This was a critical battle of the Burma Campaign, fought from April 4 to June 22, 1944. It marked the end of the Japanese offensive in India and was described as the “Stalingrad of the East”.

The British and Indian forces lost around 4,000 men, dead, missing and wounded. The Japanese had lost more than 5,000 men in the Kohima area fighting.

I was reminded that Private John Snowden Jackson Daglish of the Durham Light Infantry lost his life at Kohima on 22 April 1944. John was the son of Septimus Joshua Daglish and Hannah Jackson, and was born in Gateshead - but his family was originally from Morpeth. When he died he was 32, and he left a wife Amelia and a young son. Some ten years later Amelia married George Septimus Daglish, John’s younger brother.

John is buried in the Kohima War Cemetery (see picture below). The cemetery is completely terraced and contains 1,420 Commonwealth burials. At the lower end of the cemetery, near the entrance, is a memorial to the 2nd Division. It bears the inscription:

When you go home

Tell them of us and say:

For your tomorrow

We gave our today

Daglish of Alnwick - update

I received a letter this week from the Bailiffgate Museum in Alnwick with some more information about the Daglish clock makers - see below.

The workshop was located in Peaks Lanes (sometimes spelt Peakes Lane, and now known as Paikes Lane). The narrow lane is still there, and is part of Alnwick Market Place, running from the north west corner through to the junction of Bondgate Within and Narrowgate.

So the family ran its business in the heart of the town, almost next to the 18th century Town Hall. The Museum provided an early 19th century street plan of Alnwick, with Paikes Lane marked in red.

My thanks to Mrs. Marjorie Brown at the Bailiffgate Museum for these additional details.

Talking of maps, I would like to mention a company which sells a series of old Ordnance Survey maps.

Most Daglish families have their roots in the North-East – so it is frustrating for me living in the South East of England with little access to local information.

One resource that I have found very helpful is a series of old Ordnance Survey Maps published by Alan Godfrey Maps under the title The Godfrey Edition.

The maps date mostly from the late 19th century and are highly detailed, taken from the 1/2500 plans and reprinted at about 14 inches to the mile. The area covered by each map is relatively small, covering about one and a half square miles.

On the back of each map are some interesting historical notes on the area concerned, written by local experts for this series. Many also include extracts from contemporary directories giving the names of local residents and trades.

With more than 2,000 maps already published, there is a good range of maps covering the whole country, and County Durham and the Newcastle area well represented. The company is also based in the area, so has some useful local knowledge. Maps are priced at £2.20 each and can be ordered on-line through the on-line store at the company’s website.

Alan Godfrey Maps, Prospect Business Park, Leadgate, Consett, DH8 7PW, England. Tel. (01207) 583388

The Daglish clockmakers of Alnwick

Have you seen a Daglish clock? I did once - many years ago on a family holiday in Northumberland when our children were still young, we visited a nearby National Trust property and in the team room we saw a grandfather clock with the name "Daglish, Alnwick" on it. We didn't take a photo - and I have never seen another!

I was recently I was in touch with Peter Fenwick, a clock enthusiast who lives near Alnwick and who had owned a Daglish clock - but had recently sold it. The picture on the right (which appeared in the February 2002 edition of Clocks magazine) is of Peter's clock - you can just about see the name of Daglish on the dial.

The Daglishes made fine clocks, mostly grandfathers with brass or painted dials, many of which survive - but most of which are owned privately by collectors and rarely appear for sale.

During the 18th and 19th century, there were three generations of clockmakers called Joseph Daglish who lived and worked in Alnwick, Northumberland.

The family apparently had Scottish origins and are described as "dissenters" or nonconformists. The first Joseph Daglish arrived in Alnwick some time before 1740 - he was married to Ann Forster in that year. They had two sons, Joseph (1749-1798) and Robert (1753-1807), and both became clockmakers. Joseph succeeded his father, whilst Robert remained a journeyman all his life. Robert junior also had a son Joseph (1775-1843) who took over the business on his father's death. Over a hundred years of clockmaking under the Daglish name.

As far as I know, the youngest Joseph did not marry and had no children. He appears in the 1841 Census, living with his sister Ann, also unmarried - so I believe that the clock business ceased when he died.

Some Daglish clocks clocks are described in the book "North Country Clockmakers of the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries" by C. Leo Reid (1925). A grandfather clock had a "face decorated with pictures of old English warships and at each corner there is a painting of admirals, one of which is Nelson". Another had a dial showing "old English figures painted with two pheasants and vase, in each corner flowers".

I would be very interested in any information about this clockmaking family - and to know the wherabouts of any Daglish clocks or to see any photos. Maybe we will have to pay a return visit to that National Trust property to see if we can find the clock that we remember seeing all those years ago!

Details from the book "Clock makers of Northumberland and Durham" by Keith Bates (1980). Other information supplied by Peter Fenwick.

Ian Daglish, military historian

Ian Daglish writes books about the Normandy campaign of 1944, and his latest book “Operation Epsom” is due out later this summer - it was originally scheduled to be published this week, but has been delayed due to some production issues. This is a book that has been forming in Ian’s mind for more than ten years.

Ian’s interest in history in general and the Normandy campaign in particular has grown throughout his life. Ian was born in Redhill, Surrey, in 1952, and when he was 8 years old his family moved to the United States for a few years. Ian remembers:

Alabama was in the throes of celebrating the centenary of the American Civil War, and this made school history lessons more exciting than usual. I returned to England with a passion for war stories, toy soldiers and board war games.

He read History at Trinity College, Cambridge, writing a thesis on Napoleon Bonaparte and the Invasion of England.

Some fifteen years later, a chance purchase in a California supermarket of a paperback about the American paratroops of 1944 sowed the first seeds of Ian’s interest in Normandy. The book accompanied Ian on many business trips - and by the 1990s Ian had visited the airborne battlefields of the Cotentin peninsula, written numerous articles about the air campaign and designed a series of board war games on the subject for a New York publisher.

Meanwhile a deeper interest was forming. Returning from a family holiday in the Dordogne in 1994, following a midday picnic by the Orne river, Ian suggested a short cut to avoid the town of Caen. The route led over Hill 112, the site of a key battle in 1944, and on through the village of Gavrus, where Ian recalled that a Scots battalion had fought a brave battle against the Germans. On returning home Ian read everything he could find about the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders’ action there. Ian found it an inspiring story – but one which was not well documented.

The following year he was back in Gavrus to do some serious research, and in the years that followed Ian has learned more and more about the story of the Argylls at Gavrus. A highlight for Ian was a return to Gavrus in 2004, leading a party of surviving Argylls. Ian recalls:

The village turned out, the band played, the anti-tank gunners revisited their gun positions by the bridges and elderly Jocks entertained appreciative visitors with their war stories.

Eventually Ian persuaded a publisher, Pen & Sword, to let him write a book - not about Gavrus, but the later Operation Bluecoat also involving the Argylls. This was well received and the publisher asked Ian to write a second book, Operation Goodwood – both books are part of the publishers Battleground Europe series. By this time Ian was becoming accepted as a military historian – he was inducted to the British Commission for Military History, invited to lecture and to speak on the Normandy campaign and to lead serving soldiers on battlefield tours.

For his third book, Ian persuaded the publishers to let him cover a Normandy battle at greater length and greater depth – and this format provided Ian with the vehicle for a book about the Argylls at Gavrus and the broader Operation Epsom - the book he has wanted to write for so long.

Ian’s father was Anthony Fenwick (Tony) Daglish, the only son of Francis Richard (Frank) Daglish. Frank volunteered with the 10th Northumberland Fusiliers in 1914 and served as a Lewis machine gunner until severely wounded on the Somme. His two brothers also served, one was later killed in WW2 and one was gassed but never regained his health.

His father Tony attended Chester-le-Street Grammar School and won a scholarship – at his headmaster’s suggestion he went to Trinity College, Cambridge where he read Chemistry. On completion of his studies, he was sent to work in armaments production at Bishopton, near Glasgow. Whilst there he served with the Bishopton Home Guard, led by a former Argyll & Sutherland Highland Regiment officer, and wearing the Argylls’ famous cap badge.

Years later during Christmas 2004, Ian mentioned to his father his involvement with the Argylls. His father asked whether Ian knew that this was the largest cap badge in the British Army, and then casually mentioned that he had once worn the badge. Ian remembers that he nearly fell off his chair!

Ian has his own views of the source of the Daglish name. He strongly believes that it is independent of the Scots Dalglish and Douglas names – and has a hunch that it could be a corruption of Danegeld-ish, denoting Danish invaders who first accepted Danegeld as a bribe to go away, and later settled the area which took its name from the tax levied to pay the bribe. Ian heard a radio documentary in which a historian happened to describe these people who settled in the North East as the Danegeld-ish.

Ian's books are:

Battle Ground Europe series
Operation Bluecoat: The British Armoured Breakout (2003)
Operation Goodwood: The Great Tank Charge (2004)

Over the Battlefield series
Operation Goodwood (2005)
Operation Epsom (due summer 2007)

Ian's board games are in the Advanced Squad Leader series, published by Multiman Publishing.

Jenny Hay, contemporary sculpture

Today marks the start of Bucks Visual Arts 2007, an annual event now in its 22nd year, where local artists throw open their doors to meet the public and to show their work. This year's event runs for two weeks, until July 1.

My sister, Jenny Hay (nee Daglish), has participated in this for a number of years, opening her garden in Monks Risborough to visitors who can view and purchase examples of her work.

After her children had grown up in the early 1990s, Jenny took up painting, working in oils, acrylic and watercolours. During the summer of 1997, she took a pottery class in Aylesbury - and found that she liked working with clay. She then took a City & Guilds in ceramics, before beginning a three year degree course in ceramics and glass at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College.

Since then Jenny has continued working with clay and enjoys experimenting using different methods and glaze techniques. She produces large abstract pieces but also enjoys producing smaller, stylized animals.

Jenny's main influence is nature, and she particularly loves the Dorset and Cornish coastline. She is also influenced by the work of Barbara Hepworth, Andy Goldsworthy and Peter Randall-Page.

For anyone interested in visiting Jenny, details can be found under the list of exhibitors on the Bucks Visual Arts website under Sculpture.

Ben Daglish, musician and composer

Returning to the recent theme of people who have worked in the arts, this week we feature the person who always gets the most results when you enter “Daglish” into Google or any other internet search engine - Ben Daglish.

Ben was born in London in 1966, and became involved in music very early in his life. At the age of 5 or 6 he started playing the penny whistle and the harmonica, encouraged by his mother who, with his father, ran the Three Feathers folk club in London.

He then moved to Sheffield, where he studied oboe and played cornet in the Stannington Brass Band before settling on percussion as his main study. He was principal percussionist for the City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra and later played with the Sheffield Youth Orchestra and the Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra, performing extensively as both percussionist and conductor. When he was about 17 he found himself listening to the music of Jethro Tull, and on his 18th birthday received a flute as a birthday present - it is the one he still plays today (and probably the one in the photo).

After an abortive stint at Essex University studying maths, Ben started composing music for computer games in the early 1980s, mainly for the Commodore 64 (usually referred to as the C64). This period is particularly well documented on the internet.

Ben moved on to composing what he describes as more "real" music and spent the next five years composing, performing and acting as musical director for a number of theatre shows, due mainly to the influence of his partner Sarah, a theatre director. He has worked with a number of theatre companies (including being Musical Director of the Marlow International Youth Theatre from 1992 to 2000) and performed in a number of Box Clever productions, including the Canterbury Tales around English Heritage sites and a touring version of Merchant Of Venice which toured from Dublin to Jerusalem.

Now living in Derbyshire, Ben plays with a number of bands, including Loscoe State Opera, and is involved with musical and theatrical projects. Ben owns upwards of a hundred different instruments – but still concentrates on whistle, flute, guitar and percussion. He also continuesto work as a computer programmer and analyst.

Loscoe State Opera is a seven piece group which one reviewer described as:

"Classical and Celtic influences along with the combination of traditional instruments with modern electric guitar give LSO a sound that not only crosses genres of music, but a sound that crosses oceans of time, bringing a familiarity from the past to life".

Their summer appearances this year include appearing at the Belper Music Festival on June 30 and at the Stainsby Festival on July 29.

Ben’s family tree stretches back to Morpeth – and he is a distant relation to Neil Daglish, actor - featured below. Both Ben and Neil have kindly agreed to participate in the Daglish DNA Study. We hope that this may help us to understand whether the "Morpeth Daglish" family is related to the Daglishes from County Durham, something that has been difficult to find from paper records.

Death
It was with great sadness that we learned of Ben's death on 1 October 2018, age 52.

Sarah Jane Daglish - Trip Across The Plains

This week I received a transcribed copy of a remarkable diary written about a journey across the plains of the United States from Knoxville, Iowa to San Bernardino, California. It was written by Sarah Jane Rousseau (nee Daglish). Below is a page from the original diary.

The story begins in England in North Shields, Northumberland, where William Daglish (who is my g-g-great uncle) married Mary Elliott in May 1812 at Christ Church, Tynemouth. The couple had two daughters, Mary Ann and Sarah Jane. In the 1820s the family moved to London, from where they emigated to the United States, arriving in New York in 1833.

A picture of family life in London is given in an article written by Sarah's granddaughter Evelyn Anderson-Strait. She wrote that the family lived in Brunswick Square where the girls were taught by tutors "and for seven years they were taught by a music master who had been a pupil of Beethoven".

In America, Sarah met James Rousseau, who had been sent on a government mission to survey the then unknown lands of Michigan. He later became a doctor, and the couple married in 1839, having 4 children. There is a a pair of portraits of Sarah and James, which are reputed to have been painted by Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code - but otherwise a distinguished portrait painter.

In 1864 the Rousseaus (Sarah, James, and children Elizabeth, John and Albert - elder daughter Mary Ann stayed behind in Iowa) joined three other families in a wagon train to San Bernardino. The others were the Earp, Hamilton and Curtis families. The Earp family included the notorious Wyatt Earp, then 16 years old.

It was a hazardous journey, setting out in May and arriving in December, seven months later. The reason for the Rousseaus making this trip seems to have been for Sarah's health; at this time she was crippled by arthritis and she believed the warmer climate would give some relief.

Their route followed the so-called "Mormon Trail" to Salt Lake City, and then the "Mormon Corridor" to San Bernardino. Although established routes, there were still hardships and dangers, particularly from Indians. During the first part of the journey these were principally from the Sioux, Comanche, Snake and Blackfoot tribes which posed a real and constant threat. During the latter part of the trip, an interesting relationship was created with the Paiute Indians, who would ride with the party by day and at night some would tend the horses and cattle whilst others were "held prisoner" until the morning to ensure the safe return of the animals.

After reaching Salt Lake City, they frequently encountered Mormons, who were invariably friendly and hospitable. The men of the party were invited to meet Brigham Young (pictured right), sometimes known as The American Moses, who Sarah describes in the diary as "easy in manners, affable and a good deal of a gentleman". They also heard his brass band - Sarah notes that they played "A Life On The Ocean Wave", which she says was a great favourite of hers.

On the darker side, they passed the site of the Mountain Meadows massacre, where in September 1857 a Mormon militia and some Paiute Indians killed an entire wagon train - around 120 unarmed men, women and children were killed. Sarah notes that "only 6 small children too young to tell the tale were suffered to live. They are at Salt Lake City. I cannot for a moment suppose that such barbarism will be buried in Oblivion. Oh it cannot be. It will be brought to light and the aggressors punished."

Sarah wrote in her diary every day; the entry normally includes a description of the weather conditions and the daily mileage travelled - 25 miles on a good day. She also records details of the passing landscape and buildings. It is a truly remarkable, historic document that I cannot do justice to here.

Sarah died in San Bernardino in February 1872, and her husband James in July 1882.

So, a story which includes Beethoven, Wyatt Earp and Samuel Morse. The mention of Beethoven seems like a possible embellishment, whilst the portraits appear to me to be a little crude for Morse's normal style - but the Wyatt Earp connection is a historical fact.

Meanwhile Sarah's sister Mary Ann Daglish married Albert Miller in 1838. Albert, usually referred to as Judge Albert Miller, was a distinguished pioneer in Michigan - Miller's mother's family claims descent from those who arrived aboard the Mayflower in 1620. Mary Ann and Albert had two daughters. In the 1850s my great great uncle, another William Daglish, also emigrated to America, qualifying as a doctor and lawyer before joining the Millers in Michigan, where he married his cousin Emily Miller. This could be a story for future weeks ...

I am very grateful to Pam Greenwood who so kindly sent me a copy of Sarah Jane's diary and has provided much additional detail, and to Dick Molony who was the source of most of the information and in particular the article by Sarah's granddaughter Evelyn Anderson-Strait and the portait of Sarah. The transcribed version of the diary is in the San Bernardino Historical Society's collection.

Update - July 2008: Sarah Jane and her husband James Rousseau are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in San Bernardino, California. The following pictures were provided by Dick Molony.

Eric Fitch Daglish, author and engraver

This week I would like to write about my father, Eric Fitch Daglish. He was born in Islington, London, in 1892, the son of James William Daglish and Kate Annie Fitch. The family originated in Whickham, County Durham - and had arrived in London in the mid 19th century, via France and Somerset. The family established a business in the area - firstly in cabinet making and upholstery and later as overmantel mirror makers.

Eric studied in London and in Bonn, Germany, before the outbreak of the First World War. During the war, he served in the Middlesex Imperial Yeomanry and the Royal Field Artillery in Ireland, Flanders and France. When the conflict ended, he continued in Army life as Officer in charge of education at Woolwich Garrison until 1922.

The family then moved out of London to the Buckinghamshire Chilterns, where Eric could pursue his lifelong interest in the countryside and natural history. His first of many books was published in 1923.

He became a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, which revived the art first developed in the 18th and 19th centuries by Thomas Bewick and others. Fellow members of the society were his close friends the brothers John and Paul Nash, and Eric Gill who lived close by. More information about wood engraving can be found at the web site of the Society of Wood Engravers.

He used wood engravings as illustrations in many of his books. Most wood engravings are black and white, but it was also possible to hand colour these - as was done in the book Birds Of The British Isles (see cover which shows a coloured wood engraving of goldfinches). He also illustrated books by other authors, including Walton’s Compleat Angler.

His wood engravings are in the permanent collections of the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the art galleries of Liverpool and Manchester, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

 

As well as engraving, Eric also painted. His paintings show the same level of detail seen in the wood engravings. Shown here is detail from a painting of parrots.

Other interests included breeding dogs and he wrote several popular handbooks on a number of breeds. He judged at many dog shows, including Crufts. The picture above shows him judging at a local show at Thame in September 1953.

My father died in 1966, and his books are now out of print. In recent years there has been something of a revival of interest in the art of wood engraving and I have received a number of enquiries from libraries and museums in the last year about works by my father.

The engravings can be divided into those made for sale as signed prints and those created as illustrations. I get asked about copyright in these works: generally, the copyright in the signed prints is with the family, but the copyright for engravings created as illustrations for books usually is with the publisher. For more details, please contact me and I will try to help. Some of the signed prints have been added to the Art Uk website here.

Peter Daglish, artist

This week I had the pleasure to meet Peter Daglish and his wife at their home and studio in London.

Peter Daglish was born in Gillingham, Kent in 1930. It was his grandfather William Daglish (1874-1949) who moved from Newcastle upon Tyne to Gillingham in the 1890s, where he married and raised a family. William worked as a coppersmith in the Chatham dockyard. Peter's father, another William (1898-1968) also worked in the same dockyard - and I was interested to find that both Peter's father and grandfather were awarded the Imperial Service Medal in recognition of their services - William senior in 1934 and his son in 1958.

At the age of 25, Peter emigrated to Canada where his interest in painting developed whilst he was working at a hotel in Banff. He received encouragement from artists such as Maxwell Bates (1906-1980), and enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Montreal where he studied from 1956 to 1960. He then won a Max Beckman Scholarship to continue his studies at the Brooklyn Museum Arts School in New York.

In 1961 Peter married Marian Brown in Banff and soon after returned to the UK, where he continued his studies at the Slade School in London from 1963 to 1965. This was followed by teaching posts at Ealing College, London and from 1969 to 1971 at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Back in London, Peter taught printmaking at the Slade School and Chelsea School of Art in London from 1973 until his retirement in 1996.

Since his retirement, Peter has continued to be active with exhibitions and workshops around the world - most recently solo exhibitions in Canada and Cuba.

Peter's early works were paintings in oil - but he soon focussed on linocuts and lithographs. Since 1985 he has made fired enamel on steel plate. When we saw him this week he was busy preparing for work to be collected the next day for an exhibition in Bristol, where he has recently been working at the University which has an enamel research department.

Among the many public institutions that own work by Peter are The British Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, Portland Museum of Fine Art and the University of New Mexico.

Peter's other passion is jazz and Cuban music. He plays saxophone and plays regularly with a number of jazz ensembles around London.

In a strange coincidences, we discovered that Peter's son now lives in the small village in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns where I grew up and attended the local primary school, and where my father is buried in the churchyard. It can sometimes be a small world!

Gordon James Daglish

I am hoping that someone can help with this, please.

This painting was sold at auction by Bonhams at Knowle, UK, in September 2006. It is attributed to Gordon James Daglish (19th century), and entitled "A Dinghy and A Barge On An Estuary, A Town Beyond".

The problem is that I have no knowledge of Gordon James Daglish, and can find no reference to him in the art reference books. I have written to Bonhams to check the details but, so far, have received no reply.

Is this the correct name - or could the artist perhaps be a Dalglish, or similar? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Robert Daglish - our man in Moscow

Robert Cyril Daglish (1924-1987) is now mostly remembered as an accomplished translator of books from Russian to English.

Robert was born in Honor Oak Park, London, the son of Walter Daglish and Ethel Stocken. His grandfather, James Daglish, was born in North Shields, Northumberland, and the family moved to Bermondsey, London in the late 1880s. Robert read Russian history and literature at Jesus College, Cambridge. He started work at the British Embassy in Moscow in 1949, where he met and married his Russian wife, Ina Gregorievna Nogtich, in 1954.

In March 1982 in a letter written to Richard Daglish, Robert wrote:
“You will be surprised to find me domiciled out here. I have been working in Moscow for over thirty years on translations and dictionaries and am at present producing a complete English edition of the works of Mikhail Sholokhov (author of “Quiet Flows the Don”). I have also played small parts in eight Russian films.”

He also wrote:
“My interest in the family history has been mainly confined to wondering about the origin of our name, which is so often distorted by all and sundry, even the BBC pronounced it with the stress on the last syllable!”.

A more colourful account of Robert’s life in Moscow written by Lev Navrozov appeared under the title of “Why an Englishman Did Not Become a Soviet Citizen”, which makes an interesting read.

Robert is remembered at his old University through the Robert Daglish Fund. The Fund was established 'for the encouragement of Russian studies' through a bequest from his wife Ina in memory of her husband. The purpose of the Fund is to 'make grants or loans to undergraduate members of the University to assist them in travelling to or in Russia in connection with their studies in the University'.

Neil Daglish, actor

In the next few weeks I hope to feature some Daglishes who have worked in the arts. I will start with Neil Daglish, an actor with an impressive career working in the theatre and in television.

Neil was born in in Hebburn, Co. Durham in December 1949, the son of Matthew Daglish and Mary Dobson. When he was ten, the family moved to the East End of London. After the death of his father, Neil left school at 15, working in a Magistrates Court as an assistant court clerk.

Neil writes: “After three years working in the Magistrates Court, I decided that I’d rather be an actor than a court clerk. I went to the Webber Douglas School of Acting in South Kensington and completed a 3 year course. I was employed (off and on) for the next 30 years as an actor in the theatre and television and thoroughly enjoyed it. I still work as an actor, but mostly in television and do very little theatre work”.

Among the highlights of his career, Neil lists:

• appearing in the West End production of Terence Rattigan’s last play “Cause Celebre”, with Glynis Johns;
• playing Ernest in “The Importance of Being Earnest”, with Penelope Keith;
• appearing as Sir Robert Chiltern in Sir Peter Hall’s production of “An Ideal Husband”;
• starring with Nicholas Lyndhurst in “Straight And Narrow” at the Wyndham’s Theatre;
• five plays at The National Theatre, including Arthur Miller’s “The American Clock”, William Congreve’s “Love For Love” and “The Beggar’s Opera” with Tim Curry;
• World tours with the Derek Nimmo British Airways Playhouse Company.

The programmes from two of these productions are shown here.

Neil’s many TV credits include everything from Dr. Who (with Peter Davison) to Rumpole of The Bailey, and his recent TV work has included appearance in popular favourites such as The Bill, Casualty and Eastenders.

My thanks to Neil for providing the information. I contacted Neil a couple of weeks ago to ask his permission and it has been a pleasure to find out more about his life and work.

Research shows that Neil's family tree goes back from Hebburn, where Neil was born, to Gateshead and then to Morpeth in the mid 19th century, back John Daglish who married Hannah Hall in Morpeth in 1768 - and we know that there were Daglishes living in Morpeth long before this date. This is a large and extensive family tree that we will visit again in coming weeks.

For anyone with connections to Hebburn, there are some interesting sites. The Hebburn Website has many old school photos - there are more on Norman Dunn's Hebburn on Tyne site.

The Australian Gold Rush - a Daglish story

The Australian gold rush of the 1850s had a big impact on Australia, and in particular the newly formed state of Victoria.

In 1851 the Australian population was 437,655, of which 77,345, or just under 18%, were Victorians. A decade later the Australian population had grown to 1,151,947 and the Victorian population had increased to 538,628; just under 47% of the Australian total and a seven-fold increase from ten years earlier.

Many of those arriving in Australia at that time were from England, particulary from the mining communities - and the following account of the life of Matthew Storey Daglish has been kindly sent by Jenny Clark, who is his great, great granddaughter.

Matthew Storey Daglish, the son of James and Mary Daglish, was born on 30 December 1828 in North Shields, and christened at Christ Church, Tynemouth (pictured above).

He married Mary Chambers in 1851 in Easington, County Durham, and their two eldest children, James and Margaret, were born there. Some time between 1854 and 1857, the family emigrated to Australia. They went to Ballarat in Victoria where Matthew mined in the new Victorian goldfields.

Gold had been discovered in Ballarat in 1851. At first this was alluvial gold, found on the surface or in creeks and rivers; gold pans, puddling boxes and cradles were used to separate the gold from the dirt and water. When this ran out underground mining began; this was much more difficult and dangerous.

Six more children were born in Ballarat – but in 1867 Matthew was killed in a mining accident, leaving Mary with 7 children aged under 13 (the eldest son James had died in 1864, aged 12), and another on the way. The family moved to Chiltern where the last child, another James, was born. This last little James Storey died the following year aged 8 months.

Many Ballarat families moved to Chiltern in the late 1860s as a new goldfield opened up there. It may be that Mary had other family or close friends who were moving – otherwise why would she relocate 250 miles?

These are Matthew and Mary Daglish’s children -
James (1852), Margaret (1854), Mary (1857), Elizabeth (1859), Thomas Brown (1861), Matthew Clark (1863), Robert (1864), Ann (1866) and James Storey (1868).

Elizabeth married Thomas Arthur Robert Skerry in Chiltern in 1883. Thomas Skerry was also the child of an immigrant gold miner who had moved from Carngham near Ballarat to Chiltern in the 1860s. Elizabeth and Thomas had six children; after Elizabeth’s death in 1910, Thomas remarried and had three more children, the last born when Thomas was 62 years old! Mary Maud Skerry married Alfred (Dick) Lappin, the youngest in the large family of immigrant Irish farmers in 1906. Dick was a mining engineer who began his career in gold mining but moved on to earthworks associated with dams in Victoria’s irrigation schemes. They had 14 children between 1907 and 1930, 11 of whom survived to adulthood. The youngest, Norman Richard (Dick) Lappin was my father.

Jenny Clark, Hamilton, Victoria.

For reasons of space, this is an abbreviated account of the article that Jenny sent to me. If you are interested in more details of Matthew Storey Daglish and his family please e-mail me.

Some further research has found that Matthew had a sister Mary Ann and two brothers, James and Abner.

Sadly James also died in a mining accident, this time at Percy Main colliery, near North Shields (see watercolour above painted by Thomas Hair). An article in the Newcastle Journal of 15 September 1849 which reads:

The same coroner (J.G. Stoker) held another inquest on Thursday at Percy Main on the bodies of Thomas Pattison aged 29 and James Daglish aged 23. The deceased were pitmen at Percy Main Colliery and it appeared that after the had got into the corf to descend the pit the chain broke and they were precipitated to the bottom of the shaft and killed. The jury ... are of the opinion that the chain was not of good quality and recommend that in future the chains be properly tested to ascertain their strength before being put into use".

Matthew's other brother Abner married Elizabeth Kears and had 12 children. His eldest daughters married and emigrated to Australia and New Zealand, and there are descendents of Abner's family living today in the UK.

The National Archives of Australia has recently added a section to its web site entitled A Gift To The Nation which makes available WW1 services records online, with free access - an excellent resource. There are only two Daglish entries – Roydon (Roy) Oliver Clark Daglish and Henry William Daglish.
Roy was the grandson of Matthew Storey Daglish, and the son of Matthew Clark Daglish and Malinda Keat. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force to serve in WW1 as soon as he turned 18. There are twenty pages of Roy's service history available on the site, with high quality scans -see extract below. Roy returned from overseas service and married Mary Gertude Kavanagh in Albury, New South Wales. Their son Reginald James Daglish died in 1966.

There is also an interesting site for the Chiltern Athenaeum Museum, which records the births of the family after the move from Ballarat to Chiltern.
As a footnote, gold production ceased in Ballarat in 1918 – but the last few years has seen mining begin again, in deeper mines and using the latest technology.